Officials in several Texas counties declared a border “invasion” on Tuesday as migrants are illegally flooding into the state in soaring numbers.
According to the New York Post, authorities from Kinney, Goliad, Terrell and Uvalde counties condemned the Biden Administration and its “open border policy.” The declaration aims to draw more attention on the ongoing border crisis.
“We’re being invaded. The facts are there,” said Kinney County Judge Tully Shahan at a press conference in Brackettville, Texas. “This is real. We want America to know this is real. America doesn’t know what’s happening here.”
The latest Customs and Border Patrol statistics show that the number of reported migrant encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border were staggering in May with 239,416 confrontations.
Former Trump official Ken Cuccinelli spoke with the officials and urged them to use the “self-help provision of the Constitution to declare an invasion.”
“This gives the governor, decided similarly, the authority to repeal that invasion,” Cuccinelli said at a recent press conference.
Cuccinelli and former Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director Russ Vought pointed officials to Article I of the Constitution, which allows States to “engage in War” when it has been “actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay” without the consent of Congress. They also highlighted Article IV that says the U.S. “shall protect each (state) against invasion.”
Cuccinelli told Fox News Digital that the Texas counties are hopeful Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) will also make the declaration.
“The key here is you’ve got the first legal ruling that the southern border situation is an invasion,” he said. “One, that’s obviously very significant, and two it’s going to—as it should—put enormous pressure on Governor Abbott to adopt that position themselves and to respond accordingly.”
Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith believes nearly 12 to 15 counties may declare an invasion by the end of July, Fox News reports.
Smith also believes the Biden administration is at fault for the situation at the border.
“Last week Governor Abbott was in Eagle Pass and he said something to the effect of unprecedented times call for unprecedented action or measures. And the counties that have declared an invasion agree with Governor Abbott that these are unprecedented times where local and state governments have to work together and take unprecedented action,” Smith noted.
“And the only reason we have to do this is because President Biden has failed to secure the border at all. So we’re standing with the governor and we’re declaring an invasion in the hope that he will stand with us in doing so,” he added.
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